Client Acquisition: The Critical Path to Predictable Profits

While you're trying to solve all these problems, while you're trying to take on all these secondary projects to kind of keep the boat from sinking, your boat, your business has lost its sense of leadership, so we got to stop. We got to take a step back. We got to get you back in this leadership way of thinking, so let's do that starting right now.

You Must Keep the "Heart" Pumping

Here's the deal. Everybody has a heart. Every human has heart that pumps blood through the body, and as long as that heart is pumping blood, then you got a chance at living a good life. Business works the same way. Business has a heart which pumps blood through the business, and as long as that heart is pumping, then you can live another day and help another client. The concern is when that heart's not working as well, you end up having heart palpitations. You end up having heart trouble, et cetera, et cetera. Your business can't function as well.

Inside a business, that heart has three major elements: client acquisition, client service, and client retention, so let's break those down.

Client Acquisition: How Should It Work?

What is the beginning of your client acquisition process? Whether you have a primarily outbound process or primarily inbound process, where does it start? Now, what are the series of steps that happen in between that very first step and the actual client acquisition, when the client actually becomes a client? What is that process? What is your preferred process? How would you like it to work? Spell that out, write that down.

Client Service: How Should It Work?

Now, step number two is client service, so now that that person has become a client, that that company has become a client, so now a series of things are going to happen. There is a best case experience that you want that client to have. There are a series of things that you know you want them to experience, because they'll be wowed at the end. That's why you're in business, right, to wow clients? Well then, how should that work? What is your preferred experience? Outline that, write that down, document that.

Client Retention: How Should it Work?

Now, step number three is client retention. You work so hard to acquire the client. You work so hard to serve the client. Maintaining that relationship just makes good sense, so what does that look like? Should they join membership club? Should they become a retainer client? Should they refer you to someone else in their network? How do you continue that relationship? What is the preferred method for you and your company? Document that, write that down.

For the vast majority of people I talk to in business, whether their clients of mine or just other professionals, you can tie back 80% of their challenges to a client acquisition issue. Somewhere in this critical path, they've experienced a breakdown and that breakdown creates this whole firefighter attitude, and it can be so difficult to reverse-engineer, to reverse yourself out of that firefighter space once you get in it.

You need to have clarity on your critical path: client acquisition, client service, client retention. It's the heart that pumps your business. It's what keeps blood flowing through your business and when you have a breakdown there, you have a breakdown in your business. Remember, you are the only person that can do this. Nobody else has this in their job description. If you don't clarity about this, no one else has clarity about this. If you don't know how to do this in the business, then nobody else knows how to do it in the business. This particular conversation starts with you, so take that step back, acknowledge that critical path, document it the way it's supposed to.

Now, what do you do now? What's your next step? Let's use the comment box below. Somewhere in there: client acquisition, client service, client retention. You know you need some support, so just document that. "Hey, we need a better process for X." Right? Just put that in the comment section below. We'll let that be a place where we can start some conversation. If you happen to be on the blog, you can scroll a bit down and I've outlined this a bit for you, so you can kind of start to see your own critical path in your own business.

Comment now, download that resource, and I look forward to seeing you in the next video. Talk to you soon.